‘He's like an Indie filmmaker but with crazy…’: John Leguizamo on Christopher Nolan's ‘The Odyssey’
Los Angeles: Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan’s next film, ‘The Odyssey’, promises to be a cinematic spectacle, featuring a stellar cast of Hollywood’s top talents. However, actor John Leguizamo, a member of the ensemble, believes that despite the large-scale production, Nolan maintains an independent filmmaking style, reports 'Variety'.
“Dude, you know the thing is, okay he’s got a crazy budget, it’s not small, but he runs (it) like an indie film because he’s not doing it by committee, he’s not doing it by what the studio says”, Leguizamo said in a recent interview on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’. “He’s like an indie filmmaker but with crazy money”.
The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and boasts a cast including Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, and Jon Bernthal.
As per ‘Variety’, the film is “a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time”, according to Universal.
Nolan, known for large-scale blockbusters like ‘Oppenheimer’, ‘Interstellar’, and ‘Inception’, shared his perspective on handling extensive resources in a 2024 interview with Time. “I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is. I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way,” Nolan expressed.
Despite his preference for large-scale projects, Nolan also values independent cinema, highlighting films like ‘Aftersun’ and ‘Past Lives’ as recent works he admired.
Cillian Murphy, who starred in Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’, has previously praised the director's collaborative nature and his willingness to embrace creative experimentation.
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